CHALLENGERS from Amazon MGM Studios won the weekend box office by grossing $15.0M, with all films together bringing in $64.5M. Last year on this same weekend, the total box office was $100.2M, led by THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE with $40.8M in its fourth weekend, a decline of only 31%.
It is rare for a sports movie to take the top spot, and even more so when its focus is on tennis. Universal’s romantic comedy WIMBLEDON is the highest-grossing tennis-themed movie in history, earning $7.1M in its debut weekend from 9/17/2004 – 9/19/2004, which landed it in fourth place. That film went on to sell $17.0M domestically and $41.7M worldwide. Interestingly, it starred Kirsten Dunst who is also on the charts in this weekend’s fourth-place film CIVIL WAR.
Even KING RICHARD, the highly acclaimed 2021 movie that earned six Academy Awards nominations including a Best Actor win for Will Smith in the title role, earned only $5.4M in its opening weekend from 11/19/2023 – 11/21/2023, and a total box office of $15.1M domestic and $39.4M worldwide overall. It was also the fourth-place film in its opening weekend.
CHALLENGERS’ box office has exceeded expectations and will soon become the highest-grossing tennis movie of all time. It was directed by Luca Guadagnino who has made a diverse collection of features including the critically-acclaimed 2017 romantic drama CALL ME BY YOUR NAME and the grisly 2022 horror movie BONES AND ALL.
CHALLENGERS’ cast is headlined by Zendaya (SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME, SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, DUNE, DUNE PART TWO) together with Josh O’Connor (EMMA) and Mike Faist (WEST SIDE STORY from 2021).
CHALLENGERS has been awaiting its release date for nearly a year, having originally been scheduled to open on 8/11/2023, then pushed back to 9/15/2023 and eventually landing this weekend. Last year’s actors’ strike is the obvious reason for the delay since it restricted Zendaya’s availability to promote the movie. She is one of the top stars working today and her performance is one of the key assets the movie has going for it.
Zendaya’s Top Six Grossing Movies
- SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME (12/17/21) – Total Worldwide Box Office $1.9B
- SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (7/2/19) – Total Worldwide Box Office $1.1B
- SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (7/7/17) – Total Worldwide Box Office $879M
- DUNE: PART TWO (3/1/24) – Total Worldwide Box Office $696M
- DUNE (11/22/21) – Total Worldwide Box Office $431M
- THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (12/20/17) – Total Worldwide Box Office $429M
The 27-year-old American actress from Oakland has proven her box office bankability, with her six highest-grossing films earning an amazing $5.4B worldwide. Of course, several of these movies have been huge-budget, franchise-driven films that also included other high-profile costars and would most likely have done well even without Zendaya’s involvement.
Zendaya is the top star in CHALLENGERS and therefore it will be an interesting measure of her ability to carry the fortunes of a movie on her own. The film has a relatively modest budget of $50M and an original story with virtually no special effects. It would be a significant accomplishment for the actress if CHALLENGERS resonates with audiences to become a hit.
In addition to her mega films, Zendaya has also been successful on TV with a featured role in the hit HBO series “Euphoria.” She won two Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of a troubled, drug-addicted teen Rue Bennett. When she won the first of these two awards, she was only 24 years old which made her the youngest person ever to win in that category.
The story revolves around Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), a former tennis prodigy who turned coach after suffering a career-ending injury. She is married to another tennis player (Mike Faist), who has also been a champion in the past but has fallen into a losing streak. Her plan to help her husband regain his success takes a surprising turn when he must play his former best friend (Josh O’Connor), who also happens to be one of Tashi’s old boyfriends.
The performances of these three stars have drawn praise, with critics giving it an 87% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes and audiences weighing in at 76%. With a production budget of $50M, it will need to gross approximately $125M worldwide to be profitable from its theatrical release.
Lionsgate’s UNSUNG HERO finished in second place, with an opening of $7.8M. The film was produced by the Kingdom Story Company (formerly Kingdom Studios), which has partnered with Lionsgate to produce a slate of Christian-themed films. Brothers Jon and Andrew Erwin founded the company in 2019 and have since produced six films for theatrical distribution, all handled by Lionsgate. This is a recap of those six films and their success.
Theatrical Results for 6 Movies from Kingdom Story Company
- I STILL BELIEVE (3/13/20) – Domestic Opening $9.1M, Domestic Total $9.9M, Worldwide Total $16.1M
- THE JESUS MUSIC (10/1/21) – Domestic Opening $0.6M, Domestic Total $1.0M, Worldwide Total $1.0M
- AMERICAN UNDERDOG (12/25/21) – Domestic Opening $5.9M, Domestic Total $26.5M, Worldwide Total $26.5M
- JESUS REVOLUTION (3/24/23) – Domestic Opening $15.9M, Domestic Total $52.1M, Worldwide Total $54.3M
- ORDINARY ANGELS (2/23/24) – Domestic Opening $6.2M, Domestic Total $19.2M, Worldwide Total $19.4M
- UNSUNG HERO (4/26/24) – Domestic Opening $7.8M
In a stroke of bad luck, the Kingdom Story’s first movie opened on Friday, 3/13/2020 only one week before theatres were forced to shut down due to the spread of COVID-19 across the U.S. and Canada. JESUS REVOLUTION is their highest-grossing film to date, with a $15.9M opening and total box office of $52.1M domestic and $54.3M worldwide.
They vie with Angel Studios to get the attention of Christian moviegoers who turn out to cinemas to watch movies with faith-centered themes. Unlike Angel Studios, Kingdom Story does not use crowdfunding to finance their films, instead relying on traditional industry arrangements such as their partnership with Lionsgate.
UNSUNG HERO is the story of David Smallbone, whose successful music business in Australia has collapsed. He decides to risk everything to rebuild his life by moving with his pregnant wife Helen and seven children to America. In the course of their journey, David and Helen come to understand the unique musical talents of their children, who create an act that is one of the most famous and successful Inspirational music bands of all time.
The film was directed by Joel Smallbone (son of the lead character David Smallbone) and Richard Ramsey and stars Joel Smallbone (playing his father David) Lucas Black (four FAST AND FURIOUS films) Candice Cameron Bure (Full House) and Terry O’Quinn (Lost). Its production budget was a minuscule $6M, which means that it will be profitable after earning a mere $15M worldwide. It will likely reach that milestone next weekend.
GODZILLA x KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE finished third this weekend with $7.2M, a drop of only 25%. The 31-day total for the monster hit has climbed to $181.7M domestic. This compares very favorably to the franchise domestic box office champ GODZILLA, which earned $191.5M in its first 31 days of North American release in 2014. GODZILLA X KONG is still within striking distance of GODZILLA, which wound up with $200.7M in the domestic market ten years ago.
A24’s CIVIL WAR finished in fourth place this weekend with an additional $7.0M, a decline of 38% from last weekend. After 17 days, its total is $56.2M and it may even reach the $77.2M domestic total of A24’s all-time box office leader EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. However, CIVIL WAR with a production budget of $50M movie will need to earn $125M worldwide to break even and its American-centric theme is not resonating in international markets, where it has earned only 10% of the total worldwide gross.
ABIGAIL finished fifth place with $5.3M, a decline of 49% compared to last weekend. After 10 days, the horror movie has earned $18.8M in the domestic box office. 2024 has not yet produced a breakout horror hit on the order of last year’s FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S ($137M), SCREAM VI ($108M), or M3GAN ($95M). There’s more ahead for the genre, with TAROT opening on 5/3 and STRANGERS: CHAPTER ONE on 5/17. The next realistic chance for a breakout horror movie is A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE which opens on 6/28.
Where Are We as of 4/25
After 16 weeks, the 2024 year-to-date box office stands at 78% compared to those same weeks last year and 68% of the totals at this time in 2019.